A U.S. District Court judge dismissed two state legislators, Assemblyman Joe Coto (D) of San Jose and Senator Gilbert Cedillo (D) of Los Angeles, from a lawsuit filed by the Minutemen, an anti-illegal immigrant group, which claims that its First Amendment rights have been violated. The legislators had petitioned Caltrans to revoke the group’s Adopt-a-Highway program and remove a sign bearing the group’s name.
The controversy has been brewing since late 2007, when Caltrans granted the Minutemen, a group that patrols the US-Mexican border and protests where day-laborers gather, permission to clean a stretch of Interstate 5 near the San Clemente Border Patrol checkpoint.
According to a report in San Diego County’s North County Times, “Cedillo and Coto had written Kempton on behalf of the state Latino Legislative Caucus to thank him for meeting to discuss their concerns: ‘Your commitment to immediately revoking this organization’s permit to adopt a highway and the removal of the sign in San Diego is the most prudent approach in avoiding any future violence and discrimination.’”
The Minutemen sued, saying its constitutional rights to free speech, free expression, equal protection and due process had been violated.
Judge William Q. Hayes cited the Noerr-Penington doctrine that even government officials have the right to petition the government, but that the case can continue against California Business, Transportation and Housing Agency director Dale Bonner, Caltrans director Will Kempton, and Caltrans district director Pedro Orso-Delgado. He also granted the Minutemen the right to amend their complaint against the two legislators.
In the Bay Area, the Minutemen made news last year when they protested Barack Obama’s victory in the Democratic presidential primary. From the group’s press release:
“Upon Hillary Clinton’s Saturday concession speach, the Minutemen will protest the official candidacy of Barak H. Obama, his radicalization of the Democract party, and the growth of Leftwing racism in the 2008 elections. Obama is being elected simply on the basis of white guilt, but he will give us a fat dose of socialism. We are asking Americans to avoid the Left and Rightwing’s framing of the race debate, and would like to present a third alternative other than the usual extremes of victimization or supremecy. Speak your voice on false white guilt, and help stop the real dangers of Free Trade and radical Statism.”
Free speech is what we need to have a great nation, the best in the world, but there are pitfalls.
A week ago, Dale Warner wrote about the dehumainizing that goes on in politics.
At last night’s Santa Clara City Council meeting, Ciarran O’Donnell said that our mayor was the product of a horse and a donkey. O’Donnell opened by declaring he was working with the opposition group about the 49ers Stadium, and then used the dehumanizing insults to attack the Mayor’s family. Though this is a common tactic of Santa Clara Plays Fair, to attack our mayor, and just like the Minutemen, SCPF has people such as its treasurer with anger issue. The treasurer made a quick apology for O’Donnell. Ciarran has a history of attacking gays and lesbians, is now working with SCPF as its “legislative coordinator.” Like the Minutemen, SCPF uses the legal and legislative process to bully and demean elected officials. The apology is too late and not enough. We need free speech, but like the Minutemen, Santa Clara Plays Fair seeks to use free speech, as did their beau idol, the John Birch Society, as a weapon against our elected officals.
The latest news from the minutemen suggests that they will not be suing politicians or co-sponsoring Tea Party protests again any time soon.
Three minutemen are in custody, with one now having confessed, for murdering a man and his 9 year old daughter with the mother suffering gunshots in Arivaca, AZ. The young family were Latinos, and the minutemen barged in wearing camoflage claiming to be law enforcement in search of a criminal. Check the link below.
“New Border Fear: Violence by a Rogue Militia”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/27/us/27arizona.html?em
While the three minutemen may have been the most overtly fascist and violent representatives of the anti-immigrant movement to attract nationwide attention to themselves so far, how should people in San Jose respond to this development? How can people here ensure the safety of immigrants (Latino, Arab, South Asian, African, or others who might look “brown-enough-for-a-minuteman”)? The point of my question is that the minutemen impersonated law enforcement, broke into a family’s home, murdered two including a child, wounded the mother, and they would not have left the family alone even if they had showed them immigration documents. This affects immigrants and those who value human life in Arivaca, AZ and in San Jose, CA.